This week’s quote comes from the report World Agriculture: towards 2015/2030 issued by the Food and Agriculture Organisation. This quote addresses the increasing demand for both meat and dairy products in developing countries.

“In developing countries, demand will grow faster than production, producing a growing trade deficit. In meat products this will rise steeply, from 1.2 million tonnes a year in 1997-99 to 5.9 million tonnes in 2030 (despite growing meat exports from Latin America), while in milk and dairy products the rise will be less steep but still considerable, from 20 million to 39 million tonnes a year.”

The World Trade Organisation has reached deals on agricultural export subsidies, food aid and other issues, capping a ministerial conference in the Kenyan capital which Australian Trade Minister Andrew Robb praised as “remarkable and historic”.

Mr Robb said the decision to abolish agricultural export subsidies would have significant implications for Australian farmers. Speaking from Nairobi, he said the “unexpected” deal was a win for the country’s meat, dairy, sugar, grain, wine, cotton and vegetable…

Farmers are preparing to adopt disruptive and digital technology that will transform the agricultural sector with the wholehearted backing of Malcolm Turnbull.

The Prime Minister announced the establishment of an incubator fund for agricultural start-ups and technology to encourage the use of radically different ideas, systems and products, including the greater use of drones, robots and “big data” in Australian farming.

It will be modelled on Israel’s world-leading agricultural and food sector incubator, which has grown from initial seed funding of $10 million in 2005 to backing new ideas and research through to the commercialisation stage with $400m a decade later.

The Australian innovation hub for agricultural technologies, to be known as Sprout’ and launched by the Prime Minister at…

This week’s quote comes from Rabobank’s October 2015 report ‘Building a smarter food system’ and highlights how investing in a combination of Big Data, technology and computer algorithms could create $10 billion in crop value annually for farms worldwide.

“Smart farming systems improve the efficiency of water and chemicals use—by as much as 80%. Variable rate irrigation—with pivots linked to GPS and field data—delivers water use efficiency gains. Plant and soil data sensors provide real-time information to inform variable rate delivery, saving water. New spray systems and soil treatments optimise the delivery of water and chemicals, reducing inputs.”

The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) has warned that efforts to tackle climate change will have an adverse knock-on effect to global food security.

As the COP-21 Climate Change Summit in Paris got under way, Tom Vilsack, US Agriculture Secretary, did something counter-intuitive: his office, the USDA, published a report warning of the ‘risks’ climate change poses to agriculture and long-term food security.

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